Samsung’s CMO on Working With Creators and Why Casey Neistat Is the Brand’s ‘Creator in Chief’

Marc Mathieu also unveils a fun new ad at Dmexco

COLOGNE, GERMANY—Samsung’s chief marketing officer said everyone with a mobile phone in their pocket can be a creator, as the company unveiled a new ad at Dmexco today.

Marc Mathieu also spoke about the brand’s ongoing relationship with YouTube creator Casey Neistat, who has made some wild, viral videos using Samsung products over the past couple of years.

“Casey was clearly one of the first [creators] we embraced, and we have had a two-and-a-half-year journey with Casey, who has been like the creator in chief in a certain way with us,” Mathieu told Adweek. “We recognize that the best way for us to evolve our marketing model was not to talk about devices but to talk about the people who use our devices.”

He added, “You really need to organically build a true partnership between the brand and the other brand—the creator—to actually create the story that’s authentic, truthful and grows organically over time.”

During a keynote panel later, Mathieu and Neistat talked about the relationship, hinting at upcoming projects and unveiling a new spot promoting the Samsung Galaxy Note 8’s fun text messaging features that will air on TV in the U.S. tonight and also run during the Emmys.

“SMS as it used to be is really something that lacks emotion,” Mathieu said. “Through live message, you can actually make it so much more human, so much more emotional.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=ERpKo7XZ9yY

Neistat, who is working on a new four-part series starring YouTube creators, previewed a spot voiced by filmmaker Max Joseph that was shot with Samsung devices.

“This video was made to answer one question—it’s a question that I get a lot: Why Samsung?” Neistat said. “Every day of my life, I interact with Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, and I love them all for various reasons. But why I like Samsung so much is because they enable creators.”

The idea for the campaign came from Neistat’s Oscars campaign earlier this year.

“One of the things that stuck in this video was this idea that all you need is fundamentally a phone, a connection signal and a good idea,” Mathieu said. “If you have those three things, you can be a creator, too, and that’s something in which we believe.”

“What we try to do is focus on how do we use artificial intelligence to simply get an easier, better experience of everything that the phone can do,” he said. “This is only the beginning, but we believe that’s also how we are empowering people to get more out of technology.”